DR. BINOD C. AGRAWAL Vs. STATE OF GOA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two revision applications have been filed by the original accused nos.7 and 8 to challenge order dtd. 7/7/2015, passed by the Court of Special Judge, Panaji, whereby direction has been given to frame charges against the applicants for offences under Sec. 420 read with Sec. 120B of the Indian penal Code (IPC) and Sec. 13(2) read with Sec. 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (PC Act).

(2.) According to the applicants, there is no material on record to raise any suspicion, much less grave suspicion, against them for framing the aforesaid charges. It is brought to the notice of this Court that the applicants were not named in the First Information Report (FIR) and they came to be added as accused, only when supplementary charge-sheet came to be filed by the respondent/Investigating Authority.

(3.) In the present case, an FIR came to be registered against six accused persons, including the then chairman of the Council of Architecture and his wife, on allegations that they along with other accused persons had indulged in wide spread corruption pertaining to the grant of permissions for starting courses of architecture in various institutions. Upon registration of the offences and transfer of investigation to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), a detailed charge-sheet was filed against the accused persons. Later, on 9/1/2014, a supplementary chargesheet came to be filed, wherein names of the applicants figured for the first time as being the part of the conspiracy of committing the said offences. On further investigation, the Investigating Authority claimed that material came on record indicating that in so far as the applicant in CRIR 73 of 2015 Dr. Binod C. Agarwal (Accused no.7), was concerned, there was clear case of quid pro quo. This was claimed on the basis that the accused no.1, the then chairman of the Council of Architecture, granted permission to a University i.e Himgiri Nabh Vishwavidyalaya (HNV) of which the said applicant (accused no.7) was the then ViceChancellor for starting course of architecture, in return for status of constituent college of HNV granted to an institute called Vidya Vardhan's Institute of Design, Environment and Architecture, Goa (IDEA, Goa), which was run by the wife of the accused no.1, who was herself arrayed as the accused no. 2.